Adams calls for release of Colombia Three

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has called for the release of the three Irishmen arrested in Colombia on suspicion of training the country’s largest leftist rebel group.

Speaking during a three-day trip to Cuba, Mr Adams called for the immediate release of Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley, who have been in a Colombian prison since August.

The three men, all of whom have connections to Sinn Fein, were detained for travelling on false passports, but are being investigated in connection with alleged links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel army which has been fighting the government since 1964.

Mr Monaghan and Mr McCauley have past links with the IRA, while Mr Connolly was Sinn Fein’s representative in Cuba at the time of his arrest.

Supporters of the Colombia Three have accused the authorities of holding the prisoners in inhumane conditions, violating human rights and contravening international law.

They have also condemned the press coverage which followed the men’s arrest, much of it concerning false allegations that the Irishmen were found with traces of cocaine and explosives on their clothing.

The men themselves have insisted they were meeting the FARC to discuss the peace processes in both Colombia and Ireland.

As well as calling for their release today, Mr Adams, laid a wreath in memorial to the 19th Century Cuban revolutionary hero Jose Marti, who inspired Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Tomorrow, Mr Adams will unveil a memorial to the 10 republican hunger strikers who died in the Maze prison in the North in 1981.

A meeting with Mr Castro, who has always supported the IRA’s struggle against British occupation, is also planned before Mr Adams leaves Cuba on Wednesday.